A man charged earlier this year for his role in an armed robbery and kidnapping from March 2016 has pleaded guilty to lesser charges in Clarendon County
Shawn Douglas Bowen of 295 Kensington Circle in Manning pleaded guilty April 6 to strong-arm robbery, receiving a sentence of seven years in prison, suspended to one year in prison and three years’ probation; and first-degree assault and battery, receiving a sentence of seven years in prison, suspended to one year and three years’ probation. Charges of kidnapping and possession of a weapon during a violent crime were dropped.
Bowen was accused by the Clarendon County Sheriff’s Office of the March 2016 robbery of a Summerton man. A co-defendant, Charles Earnest Dycus Jr., was taken into custody March 7, 2016, and pleaded guilty Nov 6, 2016, to strong-arm robbery, receiving a sentence of 10 years in prison, suspended to 18 months in prison and three years’ probation; and first-degree assault and battery and second-degree burglary, receiving sentences of eight years in prison, suspended to 18 months in prison and three years’ probation.
Charges of kidnapping and possession of a weapon during a violent crime were also dropped for Dycus.
Former Sheriff Randy Garrett said in March 2016 that the suspects knew the victim and picked him up in Dycus’ pickup truck.
“During the incident, the gentleman we arrested had a handgun, and the other suspect had a knife, and they held him at gunpoint and with a knife to his throat, threatening the victim for his money,” Garrett said.
Garrett said he was unsure how much cash the victim had on his person, but that the victim gave the cash to the suspects.
“He was then somehow able to jump out of the truck, and he got cut pretty badly on his wrist and neck,” Garrett said.
The boy sought treatment at Clarendon Memorial Hospital, Garrett said, where medical staff had to use a tourniquet to stop the bleeding to the wrist. The victim reportedly also had to have stitches for his neck wound.
“The victim is recovering, but his wrist is still bandaged heavily,” Garrett said. “Overall, this was a pretty severe incident.”
Inv. Eric Rosdail said that after the incident, both suspects traveled to Florida.
“They returned about a week before Dycus’ arrest,” Rosdail said.
Bowen was finally arrested Feb. 7, nearly a year after the incident, and four months after Dycus’ own guilty plea.